Promoting Mallorca as an off-season destination for sports and other outdoor activities has been top of the agenda for the local authorities for the past few years. However, the latest sport has taken many by surprise.
Several social media users have been shocked to see a group of tourists travelling along a road in the small village of Moscari on skis with wheels.
A video was filmed just a few days ago and the images of this group of people speeding around on skis on wheels have sparked off a debate on the internet about how to control these new sports and the risks they pose to people and traffic.
Some of the drivers who encountered them on Sunday said they were a danger to conventional vehicles. “New risky sport, dodging them on the road,“ one Twitter user commented on the video. “I was in the car on my way to work and I found all of them with their shirts off sweating. If they fall off, they’ll see what a laugh it is without a shirt. Strange people”, said another surprised user.
The sport, known as roller skiing, is very popular in northern Europe. It is an off-snow equivalent to cross-country skiing. Roller skis have wheels on their ends and are used on a hard surface, to emulate cross-country skiing. The skiing techniques used are very similar to techniques used in cross-country skiing on snow. First created as a summer training exercise, roller skiing grew into a competitive sport in its own right.
Annual championships are held in various locations around the world. Most, if not all, national cross-country ski teams around the world roller ski during the off-season for specific physical training simulating winter skiing.
In Norway, separate roller ski facilities have been constructed to allow exercise off public roads. So, never mind the cyclists, look out for the roller skiiers.